Issue 01-02-2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Jubilee
This time last year, Elizabeth the second said to a meeting of faith leaders ‘the concept of a Jubilee is rooted in the Bible’. Whilst looking forward to her own celebration, she failed to mention that a biblical jubilee is not about a monarch’s reign, but was a celebration...
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Los Amigos, Cuban style
Cuban Quakers (Cuaqueros) sit in rows facing forwards in a building that may look very like a church. They not only have programmed meetings, but they sing. They sing a lot. ‘We are Latins, we have to sing,’ one said.
Not just a load of new lightbulbs
I can remember what I was doing when I heard John F Kennedy was shot. I can point to the place, on my garage wall, where I was laying a brick when 9/11 happened. And I know where I was when Minute 36 was accepted. I was behind a tent pole at...
Shoots of growth
When does the sense of a new Meeting emerging into its own life occur? Listening deeply to one another, in our worshipping community and in our wider community, are aspects of this process that in our recent experience in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, have led to wonderful shoots of growth, from...
Women make peace visit to Afghanistan
Four British women have returned from Afghanistan after a sixteen-day ‘peace visit’ to Kabul. The four, who include two Quakers, stayed with a community of Afghans who are seeking to live out principles of active nonviolence in the midst of violence and injustice.
Korean government honours Quaker
A Quaker who worked for the Friends Service Unit after the Korean War has been honoured by the government of the Republic of Korea.
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CoE leaders criticise government cuts
Several Church of England leaders have added their voices to criticism of government cuts. They are among the latest faith leaders to speak out on the subject. Quakers, Baptists and Methodists have already issued critical statements on aspects of the government’s austerity programme.
Bill to legalise same sex marriage published
Quakers have welcomed the publication of a bill to legalise same sex marriage in England and Wales.
Quaker presence at Charney
A resident Friend/warden has recently been appointed at the Charney Manor Quaker Conference and Retreat Centre.
Values and sustainability
Jeanette Fitzsimons, one of the key speakers in the seminar, was the recent co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009. The title of her session posed a question: ‘What are we trying to sustain?’ Her answer, most emphatically, was ‘values’. We, as Quakers, have to appeal...
Travel, learn, be… and act?
Last year, I returned from Canada. I had been there for seven years spending time and worshipping with Canadian Friends: something which our Toronto Friend, Gordon McClure, described as ‘the Ministry of Presence’. Being ‘Present to the Presence’ and, indeed, ‘Present in the Presence’ is something that early Friends – and...
On surviving the operation
Because I did not die, Two strangers Continue to live in a world of darkness. Another two to suffer the half-life offered by dialysis. All made poorer by my survival.
Eye - 01 February 2013
Squabbling sisters Sibling rivalry can test the most patient parent, but what to do when bricks and mortar feel the twinge? Hertford Meeting House wrote to Eye, care of Gerald Drewett, with a tale that has been galling its gables:
Letters - 01 February 2013
Winners and losers Edwin J Wrigley’s letter (18 January) is very helpful in exposing the problem of trying to understand spiritual teaching with a materialist mind. For, if we try to live a spiritual life within the confines of the mundane world, we are confronted with endless contradictions and get...